Lyr. Add: HOW TEDIOUS AND TASTELESS THE HOURS (Greenfields)

His name yields the sweetest perfume,
An' richer than music His voice,
His presence disperses my gloom
An' makes all within me rejoice.
I should, was he always so nigh
Have nothin' to wish for or fear,
No mortal so happy as I,
My summer would last all the year.

Content with beholdin' his face,
My will to his pleasure resigned,
No changes of season or place
Could make any change in my mind.
While blessed with a sense of His love
My palace a toy would appear,
An' prisons would palaces prove
If Jesus lived with me in there.

Dear Lord, if indeed I am thine,
An' thou art my sun and my song,
Say, why do I languish an' pine,
An' why are my winters so long?
Oh drive them dark clouds from the sky,
Thy soul-cheerin' presence restore,
Or else take me with Thee on high
Where winter and clouds are no more!

@religion @hymn

Mrs. Marie Wilbur, Pineville, Missouri, 1927. From Vance Randolph, Ozark Folksongs, vol. 4, pp. 62-63, with music. Univ. Missouri Press, 1980.

A different version, printed in the form of sheet music from the original publication (The Missouri Harmony, 1808) appears in Sandburg, Carl, The American Songbag, 1927, pp. 152-155, with the title "Greenfields."

GREENFIELDS

How tedious and tasteless the hours,
When Jesus no longer I see:
Sweet prospects, sweet birds, and sweet flowers
Have all lost their sweetness to me.

The midsummer shines but dim,
The fields strive in vain to look gay;
But when I am happy in Him,
December's as pleasant as May.

The Missouri Harmony, 1808, published by Morgan and Sanxay in Cinncinnatti (sic). Anecdote says Lincoln and Ann Rutledge sang from this book in the Rutledge Tavern in New Salem.

Uncle Jaque, if you PM your Email address, I will scan the music for you. I hope these two versions are more congenial than the one you have.